Just Good Friends (16 page)

Tyler helped her dad carry the
suitcases to the lobby, and she followed with her mom, who stopped
to take a picture with her phone.

“
No one back home is going
to believe this,” her mother said. “And there’s free wireless
Internet! I can send so many pictures to my Facebook
account.”

“
Um, Mom, are you sure
that’s a wise idea?” Tiffany asked. What if those pictures ended up
being seen by the wrong people?

“
Everyone back home knows
I’m here.”

“
You aren’t friending anyone
else in Tyler’s family, are you?”

“
No. I only friended that
cousin of his. Ryan. I couldn’t find his parents on
there.”

That was because his parents weren’t on
Facebook, but she saw no reason why she should tell her mother
that. “Good.”

Her mother turned to her as Tyler and
her dad checked in at the front desk. “Why don’t you want me to
friend any of his family or friends?”

“
It’s complicated,” Tiffany
hedged. When her mother was ready to argue with her, she continued,
“I know it doesn’t make any sense, but I’ll explain it later,
okay?”

“
But I’d like to meet them.
I’m sure they’re lovely people.”

“
They are. His family and
friends are great. But since we eloped, this is all new. I need
time to settle into my new life.”

Fortunately, the answer satisfied her
enough so she backed off.

Tyler and her dad came over to them,
and Tyler lowered his head so he could whisper to Tiffany, “Want to
see what the suite looks like?”

“
Ah, that’s so cute,” her
mother gushed. “Remember when we used to whisper endearments to
each other?” she asked her dad.

“
I sure do,” her dad replied
and winked. “Those were the good old days.”

“
He was only asking me if I
wanted to see your room,” Tiffany told them.

“
Or so she’ll have us
think,” her mom teased and giggled.

“
Come on, let’s see their
room,” Tyler told Tiffany and took her hand to lead her to the
elevator.

Despite the heat in Tiffany’s face, she
went with him, acutely aware that their parents were close behind
them and that her mom was still giggling as if seeing her and Tyler
holding hands was the cutest thing she’d ever witnessed. Tyler
squeezed her hand, and she looked up at him in time to catch his
sympathetic smile. She smiled in return.

Her dad pressed the button they needed.
“I tried to tell Nathan that he didn’t have to go all out for us.
We don’t require more than a bed and a bathroom.”

“
I understand,” Tyler
assured him. “Nathan can be persuasive when he wants to
be.”

“
I knew he’d set us up in a
nice place, but I had no idea it was this nice.” He glanced at her
mom. “At the front desk, they asked if we wanted something to drink
or a little snack to tide us over until dinner. They have a full
service restaurant with complimentary breakfast, free wireless
Internet in all the rooms, wine and snacks in the evening, and
shuttle service to anywhere we want to go.”

“
Wait until Zoe hears about
this,” her mom replied and took out her phone.

“
Mom, are you going to text
her right now?” Tiffany asked, appalled that she’d brag about the
hotel to her sister.

“
I have to. Zoe was sure
that for thirty dollars a night, we’d be in a dump,” her mom
replied. “This way she won’t worry about us.” With an amused grin,
she added, “She kept fretting over things like busted heaters,
water damage and other nonsense, not to mention how worried she was
that we’d have nothing but a tiny cot and a communal
bathroom.”

“
Zoe has an overactive
imagination,” her dad chimed in, chuckling.

“
Yes, you should tell Zoe
how nice the hotel is,” Tyler piped up. When Tiffany looked at him,
he continued, “You wouldn’t want your sister to worry about your
parents, would you?”

Tiffany sighed but chose not to answer.
She knew very well Tyler wasn’t worried about Zoe. He was just
enjoying a moment to win one up on her sister. And she couldn’t
blame him in light of everything her sister had done.

The door opened, and they stepped out
of the elevator then followed her dad down the hall while her mom
typed into her phone. When they reached the door, her dad slid the
card through the doorknob. He led them inside, and Tyler
whistled.

Tiffany touched her jaw to make sure it
hadn’t fallen to the floor. The suite was huge. It had three
spacious rooms. One was the bedroom. Another was a TV room with a
large flatscreen TV and a bar. The other room had two large sofas,
three chairs, and a coffee table. This room also had patio doors
overlooking a golf course and large pool.

“
This place is bigger than
my apartment,” she blurted out as she went to the large bathroom
with a hot tub and a regular tub with a shower. “And nicer, too.”
She glanced at Tyler and whispered, “Just how much did Nathan spend
on this room?”

Tyler shrugged. “Whatever it was, I
don’t want to see his bill.”

She didn’t either. This was crazy.
“Nathan doesn’t even know my parents. Why would he go through all
this just for them?”

“
Because he thinks it’s a
good idea you and I end up together.”

Not sure she heard right, she asked,
“What?”

Before he could answer, her mom ran
over to them and showed her the pictures she’d taken of the suite.
“My friends will die with envy,” she said as she posted them on
Facebook. “They’ve never been anywhere this fancy. I swear, I feel
like a princess in a place like this.”

“
Yes, Nathan really goes all
out,” Tiffany muttered, wondering if this was only going to make
her parents want to visit again…and soon.

“
I must give him something
for his generosity,” her mom replied. “Even at a family discount,
this is an unbelievably sweet thing for him to do.”

“
Well,” her dad called out
from where he stood by the patio doors, “he did tell us to enjoy
the trip with our daughter and son-in-law.”

“
Oh, we’d do that anyway,”
her mom said then took a picture of the bathroom. “I’ve always
wanted to try a hot tub. This is going to be the best two weeks of
my life!”

“
I’m sure Zoe will be
pleased to know you’re having such a good time,” Tyler
said.

Tiffany shot him a pointed look, hoping
he’d get the hint and stop. She had no idea that he’d taken Zoe’s
putdowns so personally.

“
Are you hungry?” Tyler
asked, turning his attention back to her parents.

“
We ate a full course meal
on the plane,” her mom said then flipped through the pictures on
her phone. “See?”

“
You took pictures of your
meal?” Tiffany asked.

“
I had to. Zoe thought the
airplane was going to be nothing but a tin can with no comforts
because we got such a good deal on the tickets.”

Before Tyler could comment, Tiffany
said, “You don’t need to send Zoe pictures of everything. I’m sure
she knows by now that you’re comfortable.”

“
You’re right.” Her mom put
the phone away. “This is about you and Tyler. I need to focus on
you two. Oh,” her mom pulled the phone back out, “I need another
picture.”

“
No, you don’t.”

“
Of course, I do. You were
so self-conscious in that dress at the wedding. This way, I’ll have
a picture of you and Tyler in clothes you actually want to be seen
in.”

“
Mom, it’s fine. You can get
another picture later.” Much, much later.

“
What’s wrong with getting
one now?”

Tiffany struggled to come up with a
suitable reply but only came up with, “You’ve been taking a lot of
pictures already. Give the poor phone a break.”

“
Well, alright,” her mom
finally relented. “Though I want a picture of you two before the
night is over. And I won’t take no for an answer. I already have
lots of pictures of Zoe and Brad. It’s only fair I get some of you
and Tyler.”

Tiffany let out a long sigh. As much as
it pained her, her mom had a good point.

“
We could have a light snack
if you want to go out to eat,” her dad said, coming over to them.
“But this will be our treat. We feel bad enough about all the nice
things your boss did for us. The least we can do is spend some of
the money we got from my investment on you two.”

“
Your investment?” Tiffany
didn’t realize her dad invested his money into anything.

“
Nothing fancy. Just a few
stocks. I didn’t put a lot in.”

“
He was so excited, he
wanted to finally visit you,” her mom said. “We wanted to come here
ever since you moved, but we never had enough money to make the
trip. And with your dad’s back being the way it is, we didn’t want
to drive.”

“
Flying was the best option,
but we knew it’d be more expensive.”

“
We’ll remodel the kitchen
when we get another windfall.”

Tiffany winced. “You gave up remodeling
your kitchen so you could visit me?” As an afterthought, she
glanced at Tyler and added, “Us?”

“
We wanted to visit you
anyway. This way, we got an extra nice reason to come.”

Tiffany didn’t know how to respond to
that. For the first time, it occurred to her that her parents might
have a pleasant side to them. All she’d ever thought about while
growing up was getting away so she could become her own person
instead of the person they’d expected her to be.

They had dreams of her becoming a
school teacher and marrying one of the local boys in town. But
Tiffany never felt called to teach, nor could she see spending the
rest of her life with any of the boys she’d grown up with. So she
left in order to figure out what she wanted to do with her life and
find someone she wanted to marry.

It’d been a gamble on her part, but
then all of life was a gamble. Her life motto had always been,
“Nothing ventured; nothing gained.” She didn’t want to live her
life wondering what would have happened if she’d taken the chance
and done something different than what her parents
wanted.

That was also why she liked to go from
job to job, especially temporary and seasonal work. Zoe thought it
was because she was a loser who couldn’t hold onto a job, but that
hadn’t been it at all. The only constant she wanted was that
special someone to marry, but she hadn’t found him. At least, not
yet. Maybe her parents were afraid that she’d never find someone.
Maybe they didn’t want her to live her life alone. Maybe they had
simply wanted her to be happy. But man, she sure wished they had
taken a more subtle approach to it.

“
Tiffany?”

Turning her attention to Tyler, she
waited for him to repeat his question.

“
I just asked if you’re
ready to go,” he said, gesturing to the door where her parents were
waiting.

Blinking, she nodded and hurried to
join them. She hadn’t realized they’d been trying to get her
attention. “Sorry,” she told them. “My mind was on other
things.”

They glanced at Tyler and smiled in a
way that told her they understood, and she was sure her face turned
bright red. Maybe she wasn’t going to have to pretend to be in love
with him. She seemed to be giving them that impression if she
appeared to be daydreaming all the time. Lowering her gaze, she
headed down the hall for the elevator. She could only guess what
Beth would say if she’d been here.

Chapter
Fourteen

“
Well, this is it,” Tiffany
said, a hesitant tone in her voice that Tyler suspected her parents
missed.

They stepped into Tiffany’s apartment,
and Tiffany gestured to the living room. “It’s not much. Just a
simple place to call home.”

She glanced at Tyler as if asking what
he thought of her choice of words, and he nodded to indicate it was
fine with him. He couldn’t recall a time he’d seen her this
nervous. Even during Thanksgiving weekend, she hadn’t been biting
her lower lip as much.

“
It’s so quaint,” her mother
said in a pleased tone, lifting her phone to take another
picture.

The woman sure lived to take pictures
and post them on Facebook, Tyler thought. “Have a seat,” he
encouraged Tiffany’s parents when her mother was done.

“
Oh no,” her father shook
his head, “you and Tiffany ought to sit together. You two are the
newlyweds, not us.”

“
So true,” her mom replied
and sat in the recliner. “And I promise I won’t take another
picture of you two unless you say it’s okay.” This last comment,
she directed at Tiffany.

Once Tyler shrugged out of his coat, he
settled next to Tiffany on the couch, and since her parents looked
expectantly at them, he put his arm around her shoulders. At least,
that’s what he thought they were hoping for. When they smiled and
her dad sat in one of the kitchen chairs he pulled into the room,
Tyler figured he’d made the right move.